Power of Fours; Qualities of Bondage and Unbinding

Four Qualities of Bondage:

• jatam 生 {sho}: born
• bhutam 起 {ki}: Arisen, Originated, become, come into being.
• katam 作 {sa} 造 {zo}: created, fabricated, made
• sankhatam 爲 {i} or 行 {gyo}: Compounded, conditioned

Four Qualities of Unbinding.

• ajatam 不生 {fusho} 無生 {musho}: unborn.
  
• abhutam 無起 {muki}: non-arisen,
  
• akatam 無作 {musa} 無造 {muzo}: uncreated, un-fabricated,
  
• asankhatam 無爲 {mui}, or 不作行{fusagyo}, or 無行 {mugyo}: Uncompounded, unconditioned.

These concepts are found in the third Nibbana Sutta {Tatiyanibbanasuttam} of the Udana or "Book of Exclamations;" the third book of the Khuddaka Nikaya {Minor Collection}. Chapter 8 of the Udana; the Patali Village Chapter, includes 4 short Nibbana Suttas; which describe the nature of unbinding.

rough transliteration: Atthi bhikkhave ajatam abhatam akataü asamkhatam. No ce tam bhikkhave abhavissa ajatam bhatam akatam asamkhatam, na-y-idha jatassa bhatassa katassa samkhatassa nissaranam passayetha. Yasma ca kho bhikkhave atthi ajatam bhatam akatam asamkhatam, tasmà jatassa bhatassa katassa samkhatassa nissaranam passayata.

rough interpretive translation: There is, oh monks [and nuns], an unborn, a non-arisen, an un-fabricated, an un-compounded or unconditioned. If there were not an unborn, a non-arisen, an un-fabricated, an unconditioned, then there would be no basis to discern or intuit emancipation from that which is born, arisen, fabricated, and conditioned. However, since there is a an unborn, a non-arisen, an un-fabricated, an un-compounded or unconditioned; there is a basis whereby emancipation from that which is born, arisen, fabricated, and conditioned is intuited.

One intepretation is that this refutes nihilistic or annihilationist understandings of nirvana, or unbinding. Dharmajim has explained this in terms of awakening to something; in contrast with awakening from delusion. We are waking up to something or other; which is described by the Buddha as unborn, non-arisen, un-fabricated, and unconditioned. While the Buddha is using negative terms, he might be pointing to an experience that has some kind of numinous attributes or qualities. When I first read this, I could not help but think of the four inherent virtues of the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra.

I also drew a parallel between these four qualities and the first four skandhas; those of form, sensation / feelings, recognition / perception, and volition / habituation. Moreover, in the the Anguttara Nikaya, Book of Ones, the Luminosity {Pabhassara} Sutta we find a possible reference to Amala, a purification of Consciousness, the Fifth Skandha. That Sutta seems to tell us that our consciousness is originally pure, it became defiled through contact, and that through practice, that original luminosity can be restored.

Normally, one might think of the unbinding of nibbana / nirvana as being a dissolution of the five skandhas. Perhaps we could, instead, think in terms of purifying these five skandhas. Then, perhaps, when we are fully awakened, we shall have a luminous or illuminated consciousness; supporting an unborn form, a feeling that is non-arisen and not a reaction to sensation, a mental perception or conception that is not an abstract fabrication, and mental conditioning or formations that are not conditioned? In the next entry, we shall look at another, related, set of fours.